Cubs Open Title Defense With a One-Two Punch From Bryant and Rizzo

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The Cubs’ Kris Bryant after scoring the second run of the game on a single by Anthony Rizzo in the sixth inning. Bryant had broken up a no-hitter by the Nationals’ Stephen Strasburg.CreditMichael Reynolds/European Pressphoto Agency

WASHINGTON — Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo form the formidable heart of the Chicago Cubs’ lineup. So when Stephen Strasburg, the Washington Nationals’ starter, made them look silly in their first two at-bats of Game 1 of a National League division series on Friday night, it was a notable feat. They are rarely overmatched so completely in the same game.

But Strasburg, even while making a bid for a no-hitter, could hold Bryant and Rizzo down only so long. In a game-changing sequence in the sixth inning, Bryant broke up the no-hitter to drive in a run, and Rizzo tacked on another right behind him.

In the first act of this best-of-five series, the Cubs’ pair, known as “Bryzzo,” powered their team to a 3-0 victory, with help from Kyle Hendricks’s brilliant seven-inning start.

All three were critical in the Cubs’ 2016 season, which was punctuated with a World Series title that ended a 108-year drought. This regular season was much more of a slog for the Cubs, who had a hard time repeating as the National League Central winners as they dealt with the hangover effect of playing an arduous month of games last October.

“It was a grind for us from the start of the year, ups and downs through the whole year,” Hendricks said before Friday’s game. “But down the stretch in September, we played a lot of meaningful games. We’re going to try to use that to our advantage.”

The Nationals, on the other hand, claimed the N.L. East crown for the fourth time in six years, and did so in early September thanks to a weak division, a strong rotation and a powerful lineup.

Much like the Cubs, Washington knows what it’s like to wait for a championship. Although the Nationals have been in existence only since 2005, a Washington baseball team has not won a World Series crown since 1924.

Behind a rotation that featured Max Scherzer, Gio Gonzalez and Strasburg, the Nationals liked their chances this fall. But because of a hamstring injury in his final start of the regular season, Scherzer was pushed back to Game 3 of this series. This prevented Scherzer, who has a shot to repeat as the N.L.’s Cy Young Award winner, from starting twice in this series.

The Game 1 assignment was instead given to Strasburg, who enjoyed perhaps the best regular season of his career but had made only one career postseason start before Friday because of a team-ordered shutdown in 2012 and an arm injury last year.

For the first five innings on Friday night, Strasburg and Hendricks were locked in a true pitchers’ duel. Hendricks, whose fastball sits in the high 80s, had allowed two hits, but flummoxed the Nationals’ lineup with a mixture of movement and location. Strasburg was more dominant, carving through the Cubs’ lineup with cartoonish pitch movement and velocity in the high 90s.

But in the top of the sixth, the Cubs’ Javier Baez led off with a ground ball chopped to Anthony Rendon, the Nationals’ slick-fielding third baseman. He dropped it.

The mistake would change the game. Hendricks moved Baez to second base on a sacrifice bunt, and then Ben Zobrist flied out. With two outs, however, the scoring opportunity fell to Bryant.

And he came through, sending a 96-mile per hour fastball that moved back over the plate into right field for a run-scoring single to break up Strasburg’s no-hitter. Bryant astutely took second base on the throw home and Rizzo then smacked a high fastball into right field for another run-scoring single.

While Hendricks kept the Nationals off the scoreboard for seven innings, Rizzo notched another critical hit in the eighth inning, driving in Jon Jay with a two-out double off reliever Ryan Madson. The Cubs were back to their recent October ways.

“Last year, I don’t care what anyone says, the pressure we didn’t really let it affect us,” Rizzo said before the series. “But you look back and it was through the roof. From breaking the curse to the way we did it, the series we went through, the teams we beat. I don’t see it being any easier this time around, but I think we’re built for it and I think we’re ready for it.”

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page D3 of the New York edition with the headline: Cubs Open Title Defense With a One-Two Punch by Bryant and Rizzo. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe